[stoney]

I just installed CS6 on Wifey's desktop, so I'm trying to get rid of some of the HP junk that comes pre-installed. I don't know what most of the HP specific programs are, so I'm not sure what to delete. Any help would be appreciated.

Major installed programs:
Office
Itunes
Adobe CS6
Adobe CS3 (can I safely uninstall this with CS6 now?)
Pandora
Norton

Just a base so you know what I'm trying to save.

The snapshot from my uninstall programs window is below.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[canadmos]

If it were me, I'd start fresh with a new installation of Windows. From my experience in the past it has been hard to completely get rid of some of that stuff. Even if you uninstall certain things, folders, files and even processes will get left behind adding to the "clutter".

And also, Norton was always a resource hog on any computer that I've used that has had it installed.

 

[binary visions]

Everything with a publisher of CyberLink, Hewlett Packard, Symantec, WildTangent, RoxioNow, Zinio... I'd probably start there.

 

[jonKranked]

second the fresh install. that is, assuming they even gave you a full copy of winderps on a cd, which i know some companies aren't doing anymore - you only get a "repair/recovery" cd.

 

[stoney]

I didn't get the full cd, which is quite annoying. I'll start with BV's lead and come back once I've knocked that out. I am intending to keep the Norton though, as this is one of the business computers, and I can't risk losing anything to virus.

 

[Quo Fan]

Get rid of norton, and download Microsoft Security Essentials. It is free.

 

[binary visions]

Get rid of norton, and download Microsoft Security Essentials. It is free.

 

[stoney]

Get rid of norton, and download Microsoft Security Essentials. It is free.

I am just coming back to this now. I cleaned out just about everything that is HP, which gave me a GB back. I still have Norton 360, as I just bought it. I've been looking at the difference between the two, and only see the firewall as the major option. I'm running a firewall currently, so I'm hessitant to get rid of it. Thoughts on that piece?

 

[syadasti]

Get rid of norton, and download Microsoft Security Essentials. It is free.

MSE sucks, its failed security testing twice so far. Avast and AVG are better free options:

http://www.techspot.com/news/51367-microsoft-security-essentials-fails-av-test-certification-again.html

Microsoft Security Essentials has once again failed to make the grade for certification at AV-Test, an independent but non-required honor that most anti-virus programs enjoy. By extension, Windows 8's built-in virus protection, Windows Defender, likely suffers the same shortcomings as it is essentially a rebadged version of MSSE. The anti-virus utility marked its first failure for Sept/Oct.

http://www.inquisitr.com/422680/microsoft-security-essentials-fails-tests-loses-antivirus-certificate/

Fortunately for those using Windows-based computers on a small budget, there are plenty of other free antivirus options that are good. Avast scored 14 points to edge out competitors AVG (12.5 points) and Avira (12 points). Bitdefender is not free but it’s the reigning champion, scoring a knockout with with an almost perfect score of 17 points

Windows has a firewall built-in and its likely you are behind a consumer NAT router. Malewarebytes and CC cleaner are good free utilities too. After uninstalling all that crap you should run CC cleaner.

 

[binary visions]

I am just coming back to this now. I cleaned out just about everything that is HP, which gave me a GB back. I still have Norton 360, as I just bought it. I've been looking at the difference between the two, and only see the firewall as the major option. I'm running a firewall currently, so I'm hessitant to get rid of it. Thoughts on that piece?

If you have a router of any kind (i.e. you aren't plugging directly into your cable or DSL modem), a firewall is almost useless for consumers.

See, you've got one public IP address, and a bunch of private IP addresses on the other side of the router. So your router uses network address translation (NAT) to let all of your private IP addresses use the one public address. Consequently, when a hacker gets your IP address and tries to attack it, he's hitting a router and not a computer. Since the router doesn't know what computer he's trying to get to, it just drops the traffic.

 

[jonKranked]

when a hacker gets your IP address and tries to attack it, he's hitting a router and not a computer. Since the router doesn't know what computer he's trying to get to, it just drops the traffic.

you can't explain that

 

[$tinkle]

you can't explain that

pictures can:

similar to results from whatismyip.com:

but inside, it gets doled out to these:

e: might not be the best practice to advert ip/mac

 

[jonKranked]

you clearly didn't get the meme.

ip subnet masking anyone?

 

[stoney]

If you have a router of any kind (i.e. you aren't plugging directly into your cable or DSL modem), a firewall is almost useless for consumers.

See, you've got one public IP address, and a bunch of private IP addresses on the other side of the router. So your router uses network address translation (NAT) to let all of your private IP addresses use the one public address. Consequently, when a hacker gets your IP address and tries to attack it, he's hitting a router and not a computer. Since the router doesn't know what computer he's trying to get to, it just drops the traffic.

Huh... you learn something new every day.

 

[canadmos]

you clearly didn't get the meme.

ip subnet masking anyone?

Childsplay. Subnetting subnets with VLSM is where the real fun is at

 

[H8R]

I am just coming back to this now. I cleaned out just about everything that is HP, which gave me a GB back.

Good. Now remove the Wild Tangent and Cyberlink sh1t, and then run this:

http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner